Music Box has announced two upcoming limited edition CDs - the first-ever release of Georges Delerue's score AMERICAN FRIENDS, the 1991 period romantic comedy written by and starring Michael Palin, co-starring Connie Booth and Trini Alvarado; and an expanded version of Ennio Morricone's evocative score for Adrian Lyne's controversial 1998 remake of LOLITA, starring Jeremy Irons, Dominique Swain, Melanie Griffith and Frank Langella as Quilty.

On December 17, Varese Sarabande will release the score for the period martial arts fantasy 47 RONIN, starring Keanu Reeves and Rinko Kicuchi. Filmed over two years ago, the film had had a tumultous production (or at least post-production). Like the upcoming remake of Oldboy (another Varese release), 47 Ronin has gone through three composers -- Oscar winner Atticus Ross (The Social Network), Oscar nominee Javier Navarrete (Pan's Labyrinth) and finally Ilan Eshkeri, who is having a busy year, having also scored Austenland, Justin and the Knights of Valour, and the upcoming Dickens biopic The Invisible Woman.

November 15 - Gianni Ferrio born (1924)
November 15 - John Williams begins recording his score to The Cowboys (1971)
November 15 - Richard Addinsell died (1977)
November 15 - Alexandre Tansman died (1986)
November 16 - The Lost Weekend is released in theaters (1945)
November 17 - David Amram born (1930)
November 17 - Ron Jones records his score for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Where Silence Has Lease" (1988)
November 17 - Wilfred Josephs died (1997)
November 18 - Carter Burwell born (1955)
November 18 - Ben-Hur released (1959)
November 18 - Lalo Schifrin begins recording his score for The Mean Season (1984)
November 18 - Paul Bowles died (1999)
November 18 - Michael Kamen died (2003)
November 18 - Cy Coleman died (2004)
November 19 - Paul Glass born (1934)
November 19 - Joel Goldsmith born (1957)
November 20 - David Raksin begins recording his score for Across the Wide Missouri (1951)
November 20 - Kevin Gilbert born (1966)
November 21 - Malcolm Williamson born (1931)
November 21 - The Best Years of Our Lives premieres in New York (1946)
November 21 - Don Ellis begins recording his replacement score for The Seven-Ups (1973)
November 21 - Ralph Burns died (2001)

"Brian Percival (an Emmy-Award winning director of 'Downton Abbey') utilizes a remarkable self-control over the material. There is a surprising amount of levity here, including an indoor snowball fight, that helps to lighten the mood. Despite the heavy subject matter, we are still experiencing the story through the eyes of a child. The film avoids strict melodrama, building to an emotionally resonant crescendo (with the help of a remarkable score by the legendary John Williams). The audience is spared a non-stop tearjerker, but 'Amour' is the last time I was in a screening where you could palpably feel that every person in the room was sobbing in unison."

Matt Shiverdecker, Paste Magazine

"While director Percival ('Downton Abbey') elicits estimable performances from his cast, especially Nelisse, Rush and Watson, the visible world he embeds them in looks like a set from an old studio movie or a '50s TV sitcom. Heaven Street, the provincial thoroughfare is called, and its airbrushed quaintness is as dreamily reassuring as John Williams' score, despite (or because of?) the heavily fetishized Nazi flags that seem to festoon every available inch of screen space."

Godfrey Chesire, RogerEbert.com

"Reading is an active enterprise; it demands an effort to translate the words on the page into images, ideas, emotions, people. Watching a movie is passive; one need only stay awake to have consumed it. So a film of 'The Book Thief' has an uphill climb to stir the same intensity as the novel did. The movie, directed by Brian Percival ('Downton Abbey') and scripted by Michael Petroni, is a sort of illuminated manuscript -- a picture book of the book. Proceeding at a stately pace to a subtly melodic John Williams score, this honorable adaptation telescopes a 552-page story into a series of anecdotes covering Liesel’s five years on Himmelstrasse (Heaven Street) with the Hubermanns."

Richard Corliss, Time Magazine

"I can’t imagine that the creators of 'The Book Thief' were aware of their movie’s underlying message that it really wasn’t that bad. John Williams’s score -- a quieter, more somber echo of his music for “Schindler’s List” -- lends the film an unearned patina of solemnity, for 'The Book Thief' is a shameless piece of Oscar-seeking Holocaust kitsch."

Stephen Holden, New York Times

"Impeccable design contributions are highlighted by Florian Ballhaus’ somber but handsome widescreen lensing, and an excellent score by John Williams that reps his first feature work for a director other than Steven Spielberg in years."

Dennis Harvey, Variety

"John Williams' uncharacteristically understated score is one of his more effective in recent years."

Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter

GREAT EXPECTATIONS - Richard Hartley

"As the pages turn faster, focusing on the hows and whys of a major crime central to the plot, this concision and velocity make the film feel like a modern thriller. Booo. In that contemporary (which is to say shockingly primitive) spirit, Richard Hartley's musical score tells us just when to worry or cry. The presence of always-fun character actors like Robbie Coltrane and Ewen Bremmer, as the cynical/compassionate lawyer-bill collector duo Jaggers and Wemmick, made me wish for a lavish sendup by the 'Hot Fuzz'/'The World's End' guys."

Steven Boone, RogerEbert.com

"One of the strengths of this version is its impressive sense of place. Cinematographer John Mathieson lends the rural marshland setting of the opening a desolate beauty that serves the story well. And production designer Jim Clay’s detailed recreation of early Victorian London is suitably grimy, full of seedy locales and streets paved with mud, teeming with rowdy humanity. Also atmospherically rendered is Miss Havisham's crumbling mansion, surrounded by overgrown foliage. Richard Hartley’s music provides fluid underscoring for the story’s shifts through melodrama, romance, mystery and tragedy."

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

HOW I LIVE NOW - Jon Hopkins

“Actual mechanics of the war are left unseen -- there are rumblings of terrorists, contamination, and overrun borders -- and the conflict is largely (and wisely) kept to Daisy’s close reaction to Britain’s collapsing infrastructure. Opening moments aside, Ronan carries that gradual shift wonderfully, hinting at her character’s anorexia and constant anxiety with a vulnerability unlike anything else she’s done previously. The acting amongst the children is strong as well, with Holland and Bird naturally playing the most naïve members of the group—caught between reality and imagination as they encounter society’s decline. And it does decline -- twitchily overseen by electronic artist Jon Hopkins’ superb, propulsive score, Daisy and Piper journey from town to countryside, witnessing bloody and dire circumstances of their friends along the way.”

Charlie Schmidlin, The Playlist

"In any event, Daisy is at first very reluctant indeed to join her young cousins in their little war games or forays to a gorgeous pond and waterfall near their rambling, cozy house. The lyricism of the Wordsworth-worthy setting is underscored by a nice selection of English folk-rock on the soundtrack; but soon an ominous electronic score by Jon Hopkins replaces the sounds of Fairport Convention and Nick Drake. The only adult in the house happens to be a diplomat; she flies off for an important conference, the kids are disturbed/exhilarated by a V-formation of fighter jets, and soon after that, the news comes that London's been nuked."

Glenn Kenny, RogerEbert.com

"Shot in the Welsh countryside, the movie briefly evokes a life attuned to natural rhythms. Daisy's goth-girl facade slips as she visits the local swimming hole, and watches Edmond chat with cows and tend to an injured hawk. Bucolic 1970s British folk-rock (Nick Drake, Fairport Convention) alternates with Jon Hopkins' techno score as Daisy and Edmond fall in love."